Posted by By Chiawo Nwankwo, Victor Sam, Semiu Okanlawon, Olalekan Adetayo and Geoffrey Ekenna on
The war of words between the Integrity Group and the camp supporting the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, continued on Tuesday with the opposition camp asking her to forget about presiding over a peaceful House when it reconvenes on October 16.
The war of words between the Integrity Group and the camp supporting the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mrs. Patricia Etteh, continued on Tuesday with the opposition camp asking her to forget about presiding over a peaceful House when it reconvenes on October 16.
The anti-Etteh group, led by Alhaji Farouk Lawan, said in Abuja that rowdy sessions were inevitable if she failed to resign over her role in the N628m contract scandal.
It said that currently, she lacked the moral authority to preside over the House in view of her indictment by the David Idoko-led panel.
The group stated these in a statement by one its members, Ms. Lynda Ikpeazu, in Abuja.
The coalition's position followed media reports on Tuesday credited to the House Leader, Chief Tunde Akogun, criticising the group's plan to stall the passage of the 2008 budget.
Akogun had advised the anti-Etteh camp to stop playing to the gallery and to exercise restraint in commenting on the Idoko report, which the House could only discuss and arrive at a common position.
The integrity Group said, 'That Madam Speaker lacks the moral authority to preside over the House is no longer in question. If she insists on not doing the honourable thing by resigning, then it would be obvious that she won't be presiding over a peaceful House."
The group said its position was based on truth and was 'operating from a moral high ground."
It asked the Speaker and her defenders to address the issues raised by the Idoko report and stop confusing issues or seeing them from personal viewpoints.
The Chairman of the House Committee on Defence, Mr. Oluwole Oke, in a statement by his Special Adviser on Political Matters, Mr. Timothy Ademola, refuted media reports that he said that South-West lawmakers in the speakership race had withdrawn.
According to Oke, the report purportedly credited to him was 'totally false, malicious and arrantly dubious."
Meanwhile, there were indications on Tuesday that the leadership of the Peoples Democratic Party had decided to adopt a wait-and-see position over the fate of the embattled Speaker.
This, according to a source, was premised on the confidence expressed by Etteh that those in favour of her removal can never secure the required two-thirds of the members of the House to achieve their desire.
A source within the leadership of the party who spoke with our correspondent on Tuesday said up till now, leaders of the party had not withdrawn their support for the Speaker.
He also said the zone was yet to taken any fall-back position by considering possible replacement if Etteh was removed.
Also, the Action Congress on Tuesday denied reports that it was behind the contract scandal.
In a statement by its National Publicity Secretary, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the allegation was made by those who had no interest in the cause of democracy or ensuring probity in public office.
The statement reads in part, "Saying the report of the Idoko panel that indicted Mrs. Etteh was ‘masterminded‘ by the AC as a way of destabilising the PDP-led government is, to say the least, a cheap shot and an irresponsible and provocative statement.
"If these groups had any modicum of common sense, they would have known that the AC, with less than 10 per cent of the House membership, could not have mustered such clout as to ‘mastermind‘ the report of a panel that comprised mostly PDP lawmakers and only one AC legislator.
"Is it the AC that pushed the Speaker to award such huge contracts without following due process? Did we ask the Speaker to award part of the contract to her Special Assistant, who happened to be a director of one of the unregistered companies?
"Are we back in the Abacha era, when the ghost of the opposition hunted the government to such an extent that it needed an exorcist? How much did the groups collect from the fallen Speaker to have propelled them to lose their heads and level such an incomprehensible allegation?"
The AC said the action of the faceless groups had confirmed fears that the Speaker, who has so far refused to follow the path of honour by resigning, would continue to use public funds to fight a lost battle to stay in the saddle.